Moroccan Combat Sports Stars Forge Close Ties with King Mohammed VI

"They pose all smiles, shoulder to shoulder. King Mohammed VI, head of state of Morocco and commander of the faithful, in his cream djellaba, and ’Abu Azaitar’, in a green apple sarouel. The latter’s t-shirt, emblazoned with his name and a five-pointed star, like the one in the center of the Moroccan flag, shows his thick fighter’s biceps. The comment on his Facebook page to accompany the shot is a string of emojis: red and green hearts, the colors of the Moroccan flag, and a crown," Jeune Afrique points out at the start of the portrait, a mix, in short, of combat sports, Moroccanness, love of the monarchy... And, above all, Com’. Abu Azaitar is also the first Moroccan to fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), an MMA league. His friendship with RedOne is highlighted by Jeune Afrique, as well as his number of followers on Instagram: 1 million. According to Jeune Afrique, UFC fighters earn $10,000 per fight played and the same amount is added to them in case of victory.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s friend, "The Golden Boy", Badr Hari (who needs no further description), an idol in Japan, has 2 million followers on Instagram. The K-1 Japanese star (a full-contact championship) would have totaled more than a hundred fights, most of them won, and many knockouts in the process. On the financial side, Jeune Afrique recalls an example: "Badr Hari pocketed around one million Emirati dirhams (237,000 euros) in 2014 following his victory at the ’Global Fighting Championship’, held in Dubai in front of an audience of 3,000 spectators".

Jeune Afrique also addresses the cases of Ahmed El Mousaoui and Bilel Jkitou, African boxing champions in the middleweight category in 2018, of Mohamed Rabii, the bronze medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, also in English boxing, of Yassine and Youssef Boughanem, muay-thai practitioners, based in Thailand, who would have launched a brand, called PSM, of boxing gloves, shorts and mouthguards... And many others. "It’s quite complicated to live solely from your fights, so we build careers," says Rachid Jkitou, a former boxer and Bilel Jkitou’s brother.